Giardia lamblia is the most common disease-causing parasite in the United States. However, little is known about how transcription is controlled. Prior studies developed a transient transfection system which was used to study upstream elements that may be important in transcription control. The upstream region of the Giardia glutamate dehydrogenase gene was analyzed using the firefly luciferase gene as a reporter. Only 44bp were required and 3 motifs within this region were affected by transcription. One region was the AT-rich region encompassing the transcription initiation site and start codon; a second region was a CAAAT region at -34 and a third region included an AG dinucleotide at -15. A number of proteins undergoing vesicular transport or important in the process were identified using antibodies specific to Giardia transport vesicles. Partial sequences were obtained.